cabinets ON THE WALL

It was a good weekend. A really really good weekend. As in, a weekend that made us feel like the end might, in fact, finally be in sight.

Saturday morning the kitchen looked like this:

Mission: Kitchen Cabinets was officially on. But first we a few small pieces of drywall to install and some wiring to run.

Fortunately, Shalai is a really good helper when it comes to drywall. Especially if you're looking for someone to chew on drywall. She's an all-star drywall chomper.

Before we could get the upper cabinets installed we needed to finish the drywall on the ceiling. This took a little longer than we wanted it to, and involved a couple more cuts than we would've liked, but in the end it's up and it's done, so we'll call it good.

And here we are, Sunday afternoon. All the drywall is installed. The wiring for the new lights is installed. There's nothing left to do but install those cabinets!

My dad gave up his Sunday afternoon to install our cabinets. Dad, we love you. We'd still be arguing about how to fix that corner cabinet if you hadn't been here. (Long story. Don't ask. It worked out in the end.)

I think I started laughing compulsively when the first cabinet went up. It's been a long time since we've seen cabinets up on the walls. And by long time I think I mean something along the lines of 10 months.

To be completely honest, I was actually worried about re-installing these babies. I was afraid the kitchen would feel really closed in again. It doesn't. At all. I'm totally amazed and so relieved.

I think the preserved "open" feel is mostly due to three factors - moving them 6" up higher on the wall, painting them white and installing the lights above. Well, and permanently removing those huge soffits definitely helped, too.

After 10 months of having our dishes scattered all over the house I wasted no time moving them back into their proper home. The fact that I can now grab a dish out of the kitchen cabinets (instead of somewhere in the dining room, living room or basement) feels so good. 

It doesn't look too shabby either.

All those fun and games are now making us feel something liked this:

But it was completely worth it.

How was your weekend? Christmas shopping done? (Mine isn't) Christmas parties attended? Anyone else knocking out DIY projects instead of wrapping presents?